Chronic fatigue syndrome classed as psychological illness on work's absence documentation

I too have taken magnesium, vit d, vit b, and many others. I get momentarily attracted by various possibilities, then remember that nothing else has worked so taking a random supplement probably won’t either.

I’ve also seen really poor information distributed by support groups which totally dilutes the quality information.

Basically self care is the only mitigation I’ve found. Pacing, stress management, exercise, massage.

Fucking tedious, frankly, and so sodding frustrating.

For a long time there were no tests to "diagnose" my condition. It didn't magically become a real illness the day a test was invented.

Precisely. There's a genetic test to test my ds condition but only for identified genes.

Otherwise it's a diagnosis of exclusion.

And there's many like him that have right gene fault but "wrong" (unknown clinical significance) fault on the gene.

No, the guidelines specifically states to only offer CBT to support living with CFS and that it is NOT curative. The guidelines specifically highlights this. 1.12.28 - 1.12.34

Hi OP, I've been diagnosed with both conditions. They think the ME made me more prone to the long covid. I did a course on long covid and some supplements were suggested including magnesium, vitamin d, vitamin c and zinc. I know you'll hear all sorts of "cures" and I'm not suggesting they'll cure you at all.

I do wish you the absolute best of luck on your journey. It is not an easy one, but there is A LOT more understanding generally of these "hidden" illnesses than say 20 years ago.

There is absolutely a psychological IMPACT of it but not a psychological CAUSE

@OliveK Does it matter though? I've had post viral fatigue most my life, it's not taken seriously. If I were you I'd put it down to long covid which is understood to be a thing.

Hope you feel better soon. Are you taking Vit D3?

I've had the same.. Any time I get massages, they're devastated at what they find and how bad things are. (fibromyalgia diagnosis 2006 after being attacked)

🙄😳 it’s not a treatment and everyone knows it’s not a treatment for the condition. It’s the only thing the nhs can put as there’s nothing else been researched. The reason CBT is there is to help sufferers adjust their expectations of their life whilst living with the condition (in the same way it might be offered the cancer patients).

CBT is literally the first treatment listed for CFS in the NHS online guidance.

Posters are being disingenuous pretending they don’t understand why someone with cfs wouldn’t want it recorded as a psychological condition. The two are clearly totally different. Would we suggest recording arthritis as a psychological condition? It would be ridiculous.

A psychological condition can manifest with physical symptoms which originate in a mental health condition. The treatment path is therefore treating the mental health condition and attempting to reduce any physical symptoms.

CFS/long covid is a physical condition with no known treatment or cure. Full stop. There is no mental health condition and therefore no mental health treatment. And no physical treatment either.

is it linked to insurance? If so they may be tracking across their providers tick boxes?

There has been. Some feel it is related to covid and there have been other virus peaks as well.

I know perfectly well why they develop these ways of responding. I just think that any time I come across that type of reaction, it conveys a shitty underlying attitude towards people with mental illness. It's just unnecessary. You don't need to push other people down to try to elevate yourself.

It's fine to be assertive about the nature of the condition and to reiterate that it's not considered a primarily psychological disorder in origin by medical authorities. It makes total sense to raise concerns when your condition is miscategorised on official paperwork. I'm not talking about people who are reasonably fed up with misconceptions and trying to correct them.

I'm talking about those people (again, not talking about anyone on this thread) who are offended and angry to be "accused" of having a mental health problem, and who are angry because their condition is actually real. And yes, that might be in response to other people around them using "psychological" to mean "not real" in reference to their condition, but it's still shitty to buy into it.

Call it long covid then. That's a post viral syndrome after all.

Perhaps OP is just sick of people not taking her illness seriously

I disagree. If I had a mental health condition I equally wouldn't want it mislabelled on my record as a physical condition.

These things matter. They matter in terms of treatments and support and for employers they matter in terms of establishing appropriate reasonable adjustments. I don't need counselling I need to be able to work from home during a flare (for instance)

Fibromyalgia is classed under rheumatology, it could have autoimmune connections. There’s talk of mitochondrial misfunction.

I’ve had masseurs find damage through all my muscles that are usually associated with injury.

CFS, Long Covid, Fibromyalgia… it’s not great to assign them as psychological. It just doesn’t come close.

@norasand , you’ve nailed it.

Well of course it’s an oversimplification.

The fact remains I am not going to get better with therapy.

There may be psychological reasons for my vulnerability to my condition- but my condition isn’t psychological.

You probably need to be clearer about your opinion if you want people to understand what you’re getting at.

It's classed as neurological. You could correct them. Doesn't change how it affects you though, do you have the energy to fight it?

The trouble is that people with CFS or fibromyalgia constantly come up against this and often from clueless medical professionals. They get completely worn down with it. If you read up on the history of those conditions you'll see why.